Domesticated mutation coypus are animals with interesting past, there is a reason they are kept in the children farm area of Prague zoo.
In Czechoslovakia during 1970s and 1980s, they used to be an important part of the local economy, with over 500.000 skins produced annually and their meat was popular in hospital/school cantines because it was low-fat and cheap. They used to be kept in both factory-like farms as well as private breeders and many different mutations were produced and bred in pure lineages. I especially like the Plzen´s three-coloured ones. Unfortunatelly, they went out of fashion after the revolution, they´ve almost disappered and are kept only by a few old hobby breeder in a few villages. I think they deserve the same type of protection as old local breeds of cattle or fowl.
I saw a similar coypu at Artis Zoo earlier this year.
Disclaimer: I had to try and take photos as quickly as possible between taking my gloves off because it was so cold. That's why my finger's in the photo.
We did see some rather fancy coypus this trip - Chleby had a particular mixed bag of forms. Yes, I see no reason these shouldn't be treated the same as cattle or sheep breeds.
